This year more Americans will file for bankruptcy than graduate from college or file for divorce.

A smash in the US, but tax advantages are not available for Europe.

Proponents of the merger between the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext believe it will enhance Paris’s position as a financial centre as the $14 billion deal promises to maintain independence. One cheerleader has been Daniel Bouton, chairman and CEO of Société Générale. At the Euromoney Paris Forum, held at the close of 2006, he was interviewed by Mark Johnson, Euromoney’s editor of conferences.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Chris Whitman as group treasurer and Knut Pohlen as deputy group treasurer. After five years as head of DCM Americas, Whitman’s role has been taken by Marwan Marshi.

“Whereas western European banks are afraid to go to the Balkans because they’re not used to the environment of corruption, black money and illegal activities, we are used to this here in Greece”

The unbundling of research is gathering pace again, this time driven by ­customer demand. Clients with more discerning appetites would prefer to order individual bits and pieces from a menu where the prices are clearly ­written. However, both investment banks and smaller clients are addicted to the buffet approach. Peter Koh reports.

A European transaction-cost-analysis survey conducted by business school Edhec and commissioned by HSBC came up with figures in January that show just how unprepared many fund managers are to meet the requirements of the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid) and the best execution requirements of their clients.

UBS has made its global head of debt capital markets, Suneel Kamlani, chief of staff of the investment bank.

Asset managers, pension funds and derivatives specialists across Europe need to be aware of the potential changes in Danish ALM activity. Several Danish pension funds and life insurers have written to the Danish Financial Services Authority suggesting that they be allowed to change their discount curve for liabilities from Danish government bonds. Christine Joseph-Haller looks at the implications for the euro and Danish krone fixed-income markets.

Banks’ predictions for 2007 are remarkably similar to those of a year ago.

Data on the US housing market spells bad news for ABS CDOs this year.

The Big Mac index is old hat. Who, in these health-conscious times, buys a Big Mac any more? Instead, please welcome a more pertinent yardstick for our time: the iPod index.

It’s good to see that the top men in the multilaterals are devoting time to looking after the interests of the man in the street and not just governments. Or so the Nigerian 419-style scamsters would like to have us believe.

Euromoney’s FX correspondent’s body took days to recover from the huge amount of cholesterol he consumed at a lunch in January with Saxo Bank’s Rob Gray (pictured), who chose to go to Simpsons Tavern in Cornhill after winning the online Christmas quiz of Euromoney’s foreign exchange column, The Weekly FiX. Simpsons is a British institution, where if you asked for the vegetarian option, the poor old waitress would have a heart attack. You can’t book a table and you have to sit on benches, taking pot luck on who will be chomping away next to you. In the old days, it was a great place for getting the odd nudge and a wink and picking up some decent stock tips. Insider trading rules and a reluctance to go to lunch, plus the wholesale move of banks from the City to the horror known as Canary Wharf, have put paid to that.

“I guess if Goldman Sachs can’t even read our P/E off a screen then the chances of them being good at the rest of the numbers is pretty low!”

Only strong M&A-related capital-raising will allow hybrid debt volumes to remain firm in 2007.

“I think we need to improve even more on the customer front. Customers are listening to what you say in terms of capital structure, liability management as a whole and then you can focus on one specific topic, one particular product. But you need to have people fully aligned”

Summary table of top banks, with quick links to more related content on euromoney.com

Summary table of top banks, with quick links to more related content on euromoney.com

Summary table of top banks, with quick links to more related content on euromoney.com

Summary table of top banks, with quick links to more related content on euromoney.com

Numerical proof of how tough the foreign exchange market was for many participants through the summer of 2006 has been provided by semi-annual volume data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Foreign Exchange Committee and the Bank of England’s FX Joint Standing Committee. According to the FXC, average daily volume in over-the-counter FX instruments in October 2006 totalled $534 billion, 7.5% down on April 2006.

"Go to hell"

Some investors are due to reduce holdings in favour of single-strategy peers.

Citing evidence from what he admits is a limited study, TABB Group partner Robert Iati feels that the decision of many of the leading FX banks to invest heavily in their own trading portals has left the multi-bank aggregating platforms looking vulnerable.

According to Clontarf Capital: "The global tide of liquidity shows no sign of abating and this will mean another brutal year for short-sellers. For the past three years only auto-parts suppliers have been sure shorts and we believe that this may be a year to pause with long/short funds - at least new entrants, or those managers with little meaningful experience on the short side. After a few years of quiet launches, it could be that the hedge funds’ sibling long-only products are the ‘idea whose time has come’."

Saxo Bank is launching a year-long competition called World TopInvestor on February 19 for its white-label partners’ clients. The move follows a similar game held by its Portuguese white label partner, DIF Broker, last year. The competition is open to qualified, experienced investors familiar with the risk involved in trading in various different assets and the winner will be given a mandate to manage what Saxo says is a significant portfolio on its SaxoTrader platform.

Three more former employees of struggling hedge fund Pirate Capital have joined FrontFour Capital, an event-drive fund set up by ex-Pirate Andrew Stotland. The fund launched in January and is reportedly seeded by Weston-Atlas Partners, a joint venture between London-based alternative asset management firm Atlas Capital Group and Weston Capital.

The UK has been eagerly awaiting the introduction of tax-free real estate investment trusts for years, so when the legislation permitting them finally took effect at the start of 2007 nine of the UK’s largest property companies were ready to make the switch.

Investment banks continued to ride high in 2006 on good fundamentals and the added boost of strong hedge fund and private equity activity, proprietary trading and continuing globalization. Alex Chambers assesses whether they can sustain the good times in 2007.